Falling In (Chapter 1)

Betty Sherman awoke for her second official day on the world’s surface, beaming ear-to-ear before she’d even pulled back the flaps on her tent to peer outside at the yet-to-be-claimed landscape beyond. Though only eighteen years old, it felt like she’d been waiting a whole lifetime for this amazing opportunity, and thanks to all her virtues and perseverance, it had finally come true. She’d been deemed worthy to be an Emissary of Vault 124, her home shelter, and so been one of the lucky few underground citizens tasked with jumpstarting their society’s migration back to the planet’s topside. Now, hundreds of years after nuclear cataclysm had turned Earth into a desolate wasteland of dust and radiation, their extensive testing showed that the ruinous aftermath had run its course and Mother Nature’s touch had returned. The world was safe once again to inhabit, and begin anew.

            It wasn’t easy at first for Betty to convince the council to even make her an Emissary candidate, let alone choose her for it, considering her youth. But, being a girl who’d always been deeply bored passing the time by merely listening to old records and playing parcheesi, like so many of her peers seemed to love, she’d instead dedicated her adolescence to learning all the future survival skills she could, as well as the expertise required of someone chosen to leave the Vault and start planting the seeds of a new civilization. To that end, Betty had made herself a bona fide prodigy, in some ways even surpassing the talents of older community members, in all useful life-rebooting disciplines from agriculture and construction to medicine and martial arts (just in case). Plus, it likely helped the green-eyed brunette’s case that she happened to stand at an above-average-height of six-foot-four, and was impressively athletic and healthy – which meant she’d have a better chance of braving any dangerous surprises left up there on the surface, then when the time came, also be a sought-after partner for helping to repopulate their reborn society. Once Betty had proven her immense value to the council, they had no choice but to concede, and when the day came at last, send her off with her supplies to one of the pre-identified possible settlement zones.

All the chosen Emissaries showed a sense of wonder and nervous excitement as they stepped out that massive Vault door for the first time ever yesterday. But Betty was positively giddy to be here, and only prevented herself from sprinting ahead and curiously exploring every hill on the horizon because of her dutiful adherence to their protocol. Much as she would’ve adored to just start adventurously trekking in whatever direction her boot-clad feet took her, she knew it was important – for her own survival and the future of the other Vault dwellers – that she adhere to the rules and self-preserve, by any means necessary, upon this vital quest to lay the way for humanity’s homecoming. They were all counting on her.

Emerging from her tent this morning, Betty indulged herself for a few minutes just gazing in awe at the world around her. Expectedly, there were still many patches of ecosystem that showed leftover desert wear from the previous centuries, which would require cultivation to make fully livable again, but there were also vast swaths of lush greenery that proved the time had come for people to live up here once more. All of it was beautiful to Betty: even the areas that needed a great deal of work, which she simply viewed as wonderful potential, and a chance to use all her skills. Eating a ration, stretching for the march ahead, and repacking her tent, the girl tied her long dark hair into a ponytail. Then she followed her compass and map, continuing the journey toward her destination: the settlement zone she’d been assigned to assess and, if it was viable, commence prep for habitation there. Still, despite Betty’s enthusiasm to be out here, and the years of anticipation which gave her an extra spring in her step to push through the fatigue, it was nonetheless an objectively tough voyage for anyone to take on foot. Though the climate was endurable again, it was still a hot season, with the sun beating down relentlessly, and much of her necessary path unshaded by trees.

By day’s end, after many miles of successful progress, Betty was more than ready for a rest. Her blue Vault uniform, though well-made for life both below and hypothetically above the surface, was now powdered with sand and darkened by damp patches of sweat at the inevitable junctures. The same went doubly so for her boots, which fittingly for her statuesque height, were an imposing size-14. Thanks to Betty’s exertive verve, plus a hint of genetic unluckiness, the girl tended to perspire generously, which was perhaps her one and only anti-survivalist trait. But to her relief, she’d already spotted plenty of freshwater sources while coming ever-nearer to her assigned zone, allowing her to cleanse and rehydrate, and so she was confident this side-effect wouldn’t be a problem. Even while the day’s final hour of hiking was punctuated on every step by rubbery sweat-swamped squelching from within her stickily humid boots, begging to be set free.

Night fell when Betty was just shy of the valley she was destined to claim in the name of the Vault, and so she set up her tent once more, planning to rise bright and fresh in the morning to begin the real work. Closing herself inside the cramped temporary shelter while still dressed in her clammy road-dirtied clothing didn’t exactly make for the sweetest-smelling attempt at slumber, however. And once Betty kicked off her boots at long last, as terrifically relieving as it felt to liberate her lanky bare peds and wiggle her toes freely, the dank stink escaping both deep-welled vessels after a day spent marinating in that saltwatery undersole heat was almost unbearable. It quickly filled the tent, and made the girl feel like she was trying to sleep inside one of her own filthy shoes. Protocol dictated that she never leave any belongings unattended outside her tent while asleep, but Betty soon realized she’d have to make an exception if she was going to get any restorative rest. Plus, she’d seen no signs of wildlife anywhere in range that might tamper with her shoes. And according to the Vault’s studies – confirmed as well by her own observations these past two days – there were no discernible signs of comparable sentient life anywhere in range, “mutant” or not. So Betty dumped her stenchy over-worn boots outside the tent, sealed it up tight, and promptly faded into dreamland.

When she awoke, indeed refreshed thanks to the lack of briny insole odor plaguing her shelter, she was glad to discover that both her shoes were waiting exactly where she’d left them, lying sideways in the dirt. After a stamina-replenishing breakfast, she bathed herself and scrubbed out her clothes in a nearby river, ready at last to fulfill her purpose out here on the surface. As she approached the valley’s edge, Betty tried to temper her expectations. She knew it was entirely possible that, as hospitable as the surrounding area was, this possible site for a future settlement might be riddled with problems, and she’d be forced to retreat to one of the secondary locations on her map. Of course, the moment she overlooked the valley acreage, she couldn’t help but cheer and jump for joy. It looked like an absolute paradise, rife with clean water and plant life and geological features which would all bode well for sustained development. Though she still had plenty of testing to do before the (seemingly) uninhabited zone was confirmed as viable, Betty had studied so religiously in preparation for her Emissary duties that she would’ve essentially staked her life on this being the perfect spot.

She got right to work, arraying out her toolkit and following her protocol itinerary step by step. Then Betty spent all day patrolling every corner of the valley to take the necessary samples and measurements, soon falling into a happy trance of data collection, as her initial guess about the place’s viability proved increasingly correct. Having waited what felt like her whole life for this day, only for it to go so well even beyond her highest aspirations, the girl’s attention was fixated exclusively upon energetically satisfying the next items on her agenda to a T, as well as setting up her first long-term camp. The sun still bore down just as oppressively as yesterday, baking the whole valley in its sizzling warmth, but somehow Betty didn’t notice it in the slightest this time, even once she began to seriously perspire from her spry hustle all over the zone: such was the intensity of her zeal for her apparent destiny here. Nor did the girl notice what might’ve otherwise registered as a curious sensation from down inside her right-side boot, in the form of a puny humanoid creature meekly fidgeting against the bottom of her bare quickly-moistened size-14 foot within that airless insulated darkness.